The Economist ~ Turkiye-Serbia: it’s not too late

Day 1,426, 07:23 • Published in Sweden United Kingdom • by Spite313


Dear friends,

A week ago more or less I wrote an article on the (then) upcoming vote on Kosovo. I said at the time that we should vote for Kosovo as a region of Serbia to deny the admins the income generated from racial hatred between Serbs and Albanians. After a lengthy and poorly organised vote, it looks like we might have succeeded in our aim.

However the admins had their revenge- once again they decided to spit on their own promise of a new world by introducing a list of votes by country. Why did they do this? To split allies apart, to make enemies of friends. No other reason- Serbia is the strongest country in the game (although Poland is catching them!) and the key in the ONE alliance. They are the soldiers, the muscle and often the brains of the outfit. And with them against the Turks, the Spanish “problem” pales in comparison.

That wasn’t the only casualty though. EDEN will be suffering problems too as tension between Croatia and their allies Romania and Greece form. Let me ask you, what is the point of this?


not good bros, not good

It is natural when presented with an issue like Kosovo that people will vote along RL beliefs. Most of us live in countries where we get spammed 24/7 with news about things like Kosovo. I could tell you straight away that Turkish people would be more likely to vote for Kosovo IRL, so why are we surprised that they vote here? If you did a poll of rl citizens on the RL issue, it would almost certainly reflect the ingame poll. This is because most citizens are not involved in alliance politics, and when they vote they just react, they don’t do it with thought they just do it the way they have been programmed to by their country leaders IRL. Romania voted for Kosovo as Serbia because IRL they strongly believe it. It won’t stop their leaders ingame trying to wipe you.

Look at the UK and the USA. Both of our countries were part of the NATO task force, and both our countries citizens have been heavily indoctrinated towards the view that Kosovo should be independent. Effectively, we were forced to go to war over the issue IRL. So I am more surprised that 52% of Brits voted for Kosovo as Serbia. Surprised and pleased of course- we did not make a big contribution toward the vote but at least our citizens cancelled each other out: same with Sweden, Poland and Spain. All of us except Spain (who has breakaway groups of its own) have been told IRL to support Kosovo, and all of us had to struggle to keep our voters voting for ingame reasons against national propaganda IRL.

Now the situation for Turkiye is even more difficult IRL. As people have said many times in the last week, Turkiye and Serbia are enemies IRL. Maybe not officially now, but since the first Turkish horsemen crossed the straights of Mamara, there has been conflict between Serbs and Turks. In addition, the Albanians have very good relations IRL with Turkiye. They are the same religion, share cultural similarities and are both members of NATO and over five million ethnic Albanians living in Turkiye itself. I am only saying this because outside of the Balkan region, most people are not aware of these connections.

So when the vote came out, we expected it to turn out this way. But the thing is, Turkiye has had these challenges to its loyalty in the past. When Bosnia was added, many people thought it would cause a rift. But the Turkish leadership said “this is a game” and Turkiye and Serbia remained allies and even brothers despite the RL differences. It was a great example of how ingame leaders can do what RL leaders can’t do, and put aside differences and generations of hate to make friends based on mutual cooperation and goodwill.

And the time for that is not yet past. Members of both countries have laid into each other, and insulted each other. It was obviously upsetting for Serbia to see their allies voting against them- that was just what the admins wanted. The UK hasn’t got the spirit Serbia has in the game, and I guess if there was a vote for example over the Falkland isles, we would lose and they would become part of Argentina. I guess in that situation many people around the world would vote for Argentina, and it would again be an example of admins trying to break us apart. But the difference is, Serbia won this battle. Now is the time to be magnanimous in victory.

EDEN and Terra are fighting hard to get Turkiye into their bloc, with the small problem that two of their members quite want to wipe them. The truth is that EDEN and Terra want Turkiye because of her power on the battlefield. That is the wrong reason to join an alliance. I remember when Phoenix was founded, Turkey was one of the founding members. It was Turkish representatives - Onrche and Burakkocamis- who demanded that the alliance not be founded on who was strongest or whatever, but on mutual brotherhood. For their vision, they were selected to lead. And that spirit is true now more than ever. Don’t judge a country by the admins manipulation- judge it by their loyalty in the game. When has Turkiye ever failed to be there for Serbia? When has Serbia ever let Turkiye down?

In the poll, only 52% of Brits voted for Serbia. When has Britain ever let Serbia down? When the battle for LK came, who was the first to offer gold? Who was the first to sacrifice themselves to protect Serbia? We are allies and brothers, and the percentage doesn’t reflect that.

Let’s not give into the admins. They already add countries to create racial and religious tensions. Let’s not build alliances based on that too. Serbia and Turkiye - the path to reconciliation won’t be an easy one, but the first step is acknowledging that you do have RL differences and that we shouldn’t take those differences into the game. Both sides have made the situation worse, and it will take both sides to take a step back out of each other’s faces to make it work. But I sincerely hope you do, because I have friends in both countries, and it is hard enough fighting against the friends I have already lost to the other side.

Iain




Ps. This is also interesting: An Orthodox Alliance is an illusion

PPs. SHOUT!

http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/1883557
Serbia-Turkiye: It's not too late!